the gauteng spatial development framework - Gauteng Online

SECTION 2: THE GSDF AS A CONCEPTA SUMMARY OF THE DEVELOPMENT TREND ANALYSIS FORGAUTENGThe intention of G2055 is to set out a long-term planning and development programme.Over an eight-month period, various engagements were held with municipal representatives,provincial officials, politicians, labour and business representatives, academics andconsultants. Reports and trend papers were also commissioned on a wide range oftopics, in order to distil the G2055 vision.‘The Development Trend Analysis and Drivers, Impacts and Resulting Spatial Patterns forthe Gauteng Department of Economic Development’ provides a comprehensive overviewof development intentions and outcomes of municipalities and the focus areas and actionsof developers in Gauteng Province. This report highlights the following:• The land development landscape of Gauteng Province indicates: (1) the remnantsof the structural expression of apartheid spatial planning still dominate the builtenvironment; (2) the inability of all spheres of government to comprehensively andcollectively plan for urbanisation (including property market dynamics); (3) the inabilityof government to measure the extent of urban development and growthuniversally – with specific reference to the property market; (4) the absenceof a centralised database; (5) the dysfunctional location and consequent ineffectivelinkages of urban functions and economic opportunities in relation to one another;(6) the dominant effect of geomorphologic conditions and mining activities onspatial layout, e.g. dolomite conditions, fragmented settlements; (7) an overregulateddevelopment environment driving office and industrial developers to locate inmunicipalities that process the rather cumbersome development application systemswithin reasonable timeframes; (8) the much more vigorous growth of the tertiarysector of the economy in locations far from low-income areas, and the inability of thetertiary sector to offer job opportunities to the unskilled; (9) the higher land pricesclose to tertiary job opportunities, which make development of low-income housingin these areas impractical; (10) a current approach to urban management andspatial planning portrayed in Spatial Development Frameworks which could, ifcorrectly implemented and monitored, deliver the desired urban configuration.• Property development by the private sector has, by and large, followed itsown logic and not that of the municipalities or the province. Where developmenthas taken place in the form and location as envisaged by the municipalities, it tendedto be far less as a result of the municipal wishes, and more so that it made sensefrom a market perspective, or as a result of a lack of alternatives. The result ofthis is that, with the exception of (a) some upward filtering of black middleincome households to former white suburbs and into new greenfield residentialdevelopments, and (b) the development of shopping centres and malls informer peripheral townships, the inherited apartheid cityscape by and large stillprevails. Again, the report alludes to the possibility that speed of decisionmakingacross municipalities may be a key factor in determining where developersinvest, and not necessarily only rational site selection criteria or the developmentalobjectives of municipalities or the provincial authorities.• Dominant trends in the property development market are: (1) the residentialmarket is experiencing a decline off a high base sustained over a long period;(2) residential densities, especially in the three metropolitan municipalities, haveundergone an increase in the period 2001-2007, albeit not at a rate that outstripsthe growth in single-dwelling housing during the same period; (3) the industrial,office and, to a lesser extent, retail sectors are still experiencing growth; (4) infrastructuralconstraints, especially in the area of bulk infrastructure, are hampering development;and (5) the Gautrain and Rapid Bus Transport systems are promoting thedevelopment of transit-oriented development and the strengthening of public transportnodes.• In terms of the spatial location of specific land-uses: (1) the areas that have seenthe bulk of new property investment are the central, northern and north-westernparts of the City of Johannesburg (CoJ), the eastern, southern and south-easternparts of the City of Tshwane (CoT) and the western parts of the EkurhuleniMetropolitan Municipality especially along the M2, the R21 and within the nodestretching from OR Tambo International Airport to the East Rand Mall; (2) residential09 GAUTENG SPATIAL DEVELOPMENT FRAMEWORK 2011 GAUTENG GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT AGENCY